Newsjack Series 2

Some writers guidelines have been posted on the Newsjack website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kvs8r


NEWSJACK WRITER'S GUIDE

Series 2 of Newsjack begins broadcasting on Thursday 07th January for six weeks. If you would like to submit comedy material to the show, please follow this Writer's Guide.

Newsjack is BBC Radio 7's topical sketch show which seeks to comically scrutinise the news, views and issues of the day. It looks to be irreverent and satirical, a kind of younger brother to the more "grown up" Radio 4 topical shows like The Now Show and The News Quiz.

It is a showcase for new comedy writing so anyone can submit material. We accept sketches and short jokes every week of the six week run. The best submissions will make it into the 28 minute show. All submissions will be read but sadly, due to the overwhelming number of entries, we do not have time to give feedback to most people.

We very much recommend you listen to the show before you submit material. This will help you get the right tone, write for the cast, get an idea of the length of sketches etc. The new series will be available on iPlayer for a week after broadcast. It will also be available as a podcast so please subscribe.

If you have never heard Newsjack before, there will be two repeats from Series 1 before Series 2 begins. These will be broadcast on:

Sun 27th December 1630 (rpt 0430), and Sun 03rd January 1630 (rpt 0430)

And you can keep up with weekly developments over the Series run, by reading Newsjack's weekly blog for writers at:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/newsjack

and

www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

Who's in the show?

Miles Jupp is the "anchorman". The regular cast of Newsjack are: Jess Robinson, Lewis MacLeod and Andi Osho. Other actors may join them for certain episodes.

They are all terrifically versatile. This is not an impressions show, however Jess and Lewis are excellent impressionists so feel free to write sketches featuring celebrities.

Series Dates

The show records every Wednesday from 6th January. The show is broadcast on BBC Radio 7 every Thursday night from 7th January at 23.00 and repeated on Sunday nights at 23.00. You can submit material every week.

The production team read and select material on Monday and Tuesdays. We rehearse, then record the show on Wednesday evening. The recording is edited on Thursday and broadcast Thursday nights.

If you would like to attend a recording, you can see if there are tickets available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tickets
Regular Features

We will of course include stand-alone sketches but we are also looking to establish some recurring features which you can write for:

Vox Pops: (in which we pretend to ask the great British public what they think) These are a great opportunity for one-liners or quick jokes. They can be about any prominent news issue. These vox pops will be heard throughout the show.

Corrections: Another good opportunity for short jokes. At the end of the show these 'corrections' pretend to address any mistakes we made in last week's show.

Newsbullet: Newsjack does its own parody version of "youthy" fast-paced, bite sized news such as Newsbeat and 60 second news. Usually hosted by one male and one female "youthy" presenters.

From The Archive: We delve through the archives to discover how a fictional show from the past covered topical events or how a fictional news story was covered. An excuse for a fresh angle and a sketch that sounds a little bit different

Here are some items we are considering trying out for series two:

How To Guides: pick a topic relevant to the week's news and provide tips. E.g. "How To Avoid The Credit Crunch", "How To Win An Election"

What a Massive Decade: a report looking back on the last decade focusing on a different subject each week.

But don't let us be prescriptive: you may have characters that you would like to create, a funny movie reviewer or a heavy weight journalist who longs to cover showbiz stories, for example. We would be very happy to include any amusing characters or features that you come up with. And of course, something you created could become a regular item in the show.

Submissions Rules For Sketches

Please read these very carefully. If you submit your work inappropriately we might not be able to include it in the show.

- Every week, the submission deadline for sketches is Monday midday - we will not look at sketches that arrive any later.

- Please submit no more than three sketches per week. This means we can get a chance to read as many people's submissions as possible. If we are interested and want more we will ask for it.

- Please send each sketch as a separate word document. Please title them with your full name followed by the title of the sketch. This saves us renaming the documents.

For example

John Brown - Budget report sketch.doc

- Please mark each of your sketches on every page with a header that includes:
- Your name
- Your email address
- The title of your sketch

This is really important for making sure you get paid if your work is broadcast.

- Submit your sketches - preferably in one email, rather than three separate emails - to newsjack@bbc.co.uk.

- Don't feel you have to make all your sketches about the main news story that week or Westminster politics. Look out for the secondary news stories. As well as the main news, you might have a great sketch about "zeitgeisty" topics, things that people are aware of culturally but don't necessarily make for "hard news". If so, we'd love to include these in the show too. They're all fair game.

- Be imaginative. On radio, you can set your sketches anywhere.

- Finally, keep your sketches short - the funniest sketches are no more than three pages long.

Submissions Rules For Vox Pops And Corrections

- The submission deadline for the Vox Pops and Corrections is Tuesday 5PM - we will not look at those any later. This deadline is later than the sketch deadline to allow us to be more topical with Vox pops and corrections. They are also easier for us to slip into the script.

- If you are e-mailing several of these, please put them all in one document. Don't attach 12 documents for 12 one-liners.

- Please title the document with your full name followed by vox pops or corrections. This saves us renaming the documents. For example

John Brown - Vox pops.doc

- Submit your Vox Pops and Corrections to newsjack@bbc.co.uk
Editing Note

Due to the quick turnaround in producing a script for the show, our script editors will sometimes have to adapt or change a sketch for reasons of time, to ensure the sketch suits the tone of that particular episode, or to sharpen it. Ideally, we don't want to do more than tweaks, so please don't submit just an idea or vague outline of the sketch. Sketches should be short, but fully formed.

That's it! We look forward to reading your submissions.
 

Thanks Griff.

Looks like the petition to save "From the Archive" has been successful.

I'm intrigued by the new features. I'll probably have a crack at them, although it's always a bit of a gamble using up your valuable submissions allowance on "special features"!
 

Regards corrections and one-liners

- If you are e-mailing several of these, please put them all in one document. Don't attach 12 documents for 12 one-liners.


This came up before did it not? I'm sure they said these are to be limited to just three as well. I sent two of each.

I'll be going for this with all the hope of a black boxer in a Rocky movie. Or a working class type in a 1940s British World War 2 movie.
 

Quote: sootyj @ December 21 2009, 8:22 AM GMT

I'll be going for this with all the hope of a black boxer in a Rocky movie. Or a working class type in a 1940s British World War 2 movie.

View Original

Here, Soot, wear this.


 

It's worse I'm like a character under 50 in a Startrek Movie, I'm Dirty Harry's latest partner who just bought a boat, the extras in Schindlers list have more chance than me.
 

I'm already thinking of sketch ideas for the show.
 

I just got something in my inbox about this.

The "How To Guides" new feature sounds like fun.
 

Quote: Mikey Jackson @ December 21 2009, 1:00 PM GMT

The "How To Guides" new feature sounds like fun.

View Original

Bagsy "How To Write A Topical Sketch".
 

For the last series I sent in a sketch called "How to survive a heatwave." I bet they got the idea from me, so I should get royalties for any used.

I wonder if any of us will be getting repeat fees for these two S1 reruns.
 

Quote: Griff @ December 21 2009, 3:37 PM GMT

I wonder if any of us will be getting repeat fees for these two S1 reruns.

View Original

I suppose it depends which episodes they repeat. Personally, I thought episode two was clearly the best of the series. If I was the BBC I'd repeat that. Twice.
 

I think they should probably just repeat my one line for thirty minutes.